Design a thing, win a prize; change the world?

Last years grand prize winner of the Hack a Day prize picked up $50,000 for creating the Open Source Underwater Glider, an autonomous underwater vehicle which uses a buoyancy engine instead of screws to travel underwater. That makes it silent and able to roam around for a week or more before returning home and the plans and materials are readily available for anyone who wants to build one.

Today the 2018 Hackaday Prize launches, commencing with the Open Hardware Design Challenge. For this challenge you need only to provide detailed plans of your project and the theory behind it, if your plans are among the best 20 and fit into one of the next four challenges you might just pick up $1000 and move onto the next stage. The four specific challenges are Robotics, Power Harvesting, Human Computer Interface and Musical Instruments; so if you have an existing project or an idea just burning around in your brain, then here is your chance to shine! Check out the full rules and details here.

"The Hackaday Prize begins with 5 themed challenges which run in nonstop series (one directly after the other). Each challenge lasts 6 weeks long, with the first challenge beginning on March 12th and the last ending October 8th. The top 20 projects from each round win $1000 and advance to the finals."